Sanderson Farms is not being swayed by other poultry companies’ moves away from the use of antibiotics in poultry production.
The company, in August 2016, launched an advertising campaign that challenged the idea that broilers treated with antibiotics are inferior to those raised without them. This month, at the Sanderson Farms annual meeting, the company’s shareholders turned down a proposal to start raising chickens without antibiotics also used in human medicine.
Then, this week, Tyson Foods, the largest poultry company in the United States, announced that all of its Tyson brand chicken sold at retail would be raised without antibiotics.
When asked by one analyst during the company’s quarterly earnings call on February 23 about the antibiotic-free movement, Joe Sanderson Jr., CEO of the Sanderson Farms, informed her the company would not be swayed. Sanderson Farms has gone against the grain before, and it is again doing so.
“We are not doing this to be hard-headed,” Sanderson said.
Instead, Sanderson Farms has reached and reaffirmed its stance on antibiotic use by being thorough in its research, he said.
“We did this with research and we did it with advertising, and then we did research after we did the advertising to see if the advertising was being effective,” said Sanderson.
“We did not do this blindly. Everybody does not want [chicken raised without antibiotics], and everybody does not believe the claims on that product, nor do they understand the claims on that product, nor is that claim important to everybody. There are other claims that are more important than that claim.”
Pricing and its impact on the antibiotics debate
Sanderson was also asked to comment on how some poultry companies have reportedly been offering retailers chicken raised without antibiotics for the same price that conventionally produced chicken had been offered.
Sanderson said he did not believe that doing so was a financially sustainable tactic, citing the opinion that chicken raised without antibiotics is not superior, as well as the added costs of raising chicken without antibiotics.
“We do not believe you can sell that product at the same price and maintain your margins. You might be able to sell it at that same price for a while to get into a slot, but your margins are going to decline, and you’re going to have to eventually raise the price,” he said.
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